The Invasion

By Jashith Singh

One day, exactly 5 months ago, which doesn’t seem like a long time now I have written it down but it does feel like it happened ages ago.

I was in my car with my friends going for a vacation, it was a weekend. I had gotten time of after about a month, the company I worked for was downsizing and I didn’t want to lose my job, so I worked extra hard and didn’t take any holidays so they think of me as an asset and not a liability and luckily, I didn’t get fired. Then I decided to take a vacation with some of my friends.

We reached our destination, Goa. We checked into the hotel, put our luggage in the rooms and went to the beach where we found out about a yacht party which allowed “anybody and everybody” to enter. None of us thought if this was a good idea or not and entered the yacht. After about twenty to thirty minutes of waiting, the yacht started moving. As soon as we got away from the shore, a foul smell found its way through the yacht. It smelt like something had died near us. The smell was so foul to me that I felt like I was going to vomit. I leaned towards the ocean over the yacht in a jolt action. Before I could throw up, I heard a commotion behind me, I felt too sick to care about it but then somebody’s back collided with mine and I got pushed into the ocean, but before that could happen, one of my friends Vihaan pulled me in. He looked at me and said “Careful”. I looked overboard and saw a shark, not a normal shark, a dead shark or at least that is what it felt like. I thought that’s probably what the smell that had been the smell from before. I decided to get away from the yacht’s edge and from the drinks that were sitting on the table near the edge.

A few minutes later the yacht suddenly stopped. After asking around I realized that it was because a few sharks had gathered around the front and were apparently destroy the yacht. Some people started panicking, I thought the sharks couldn’t cause too much destruction to the yacht and didn’t worry about it. The people though, they were screaming. Through the screams, I heard somebody say in a subtle but panicked voice “What the hell are those things?” I got leaned over the edge, even though I did not think that was a good idea, to see what the person referring to. It was the same shark that I had seen dead, maybe it was a different one, but it was moving and it seemed very alive, parts of its flesh were rotten and bits of the flesh were also missing. I didn’t realize it then but this was my introduction to what was going to happen to humans.

All of the people on the yacht were panicking; the sharks were destroying the yacht. With the shark destroying the front of the yacht, it wouldn’t be long until we would sink; no one could hear our screams because we were in the middle of the ocean. The crew of the yacht had informed the coast guard about this but it wasn’t likely that they would reach us in time. I tried to think of anything which could be done to escape this situation while I found my friends and we all gathered together, all of the people had gathered in the middle of the yacht. There was a sound of metal cracking and everybody went silent. One of the sharks had broken through and the inside of the yacht was filling with water. After the brief silence, majority of the people screamed because everybody knew that the yacht was going to sink and there was very little chance of survival. I saw the coast guard coming closer to the boat but it was not very likely they could reach before the yacht had sunk, they couldn’t shoot at the sharks since the sharks were on the other side of the ship. The shark started leaning and a tear rolled down my face, I closed my eyes and tried to accept that this was my death, I thought of everything and everyone I valued. This was so different than the way I had intended to die.

The scratches of the shark’s teeth on the metal were not the last thing I wanted to hear. There was a sound of the metal colliding with wooden table that had been near the table. The bottles of the alcoholic drinks fell over the edge and on the sharks, I hoped this would stop the scratching. The scratching suddenly stopped and there was a slight sound of burning. I opened my eyes. The dead sharks that were destroying the yacht seemed to have died, somehow. I built up the courage to walk closer to the edge to take a look, most of the sharks laid there, lifeless and the ones that were moving were moving away from the yacht. The bottles that fell over had made that happen. I didn’t understand, I didn’t want to understand, I just wanted to go home. Some people realized what had happened and cried in joy or fear, I didn’t know and I didn’t care. The yacht was still sinking and the coast guards weren’t too far. The chance of survival had risen.

Under a few minutes, water was flooding the yacht and the coast guard had reached us and had started boarding the passengers of the ship onto their boat, one more boat had been called to carry all the people ashore. The lifeless of the shark were crashing against the railings of the yacht. All people were on board before the yacht completely sunk.

We traveled back to shore, were asked as to what had happened and were allowed to leave. I told my friends that I was going home right then and there. Only one of them agreed to come with me. I didn’t really care about who came and who didn’t. We drove back home and reached at 3 A.M at night.

I didn’t wake up my parents when I entered my house and went to sleep right away. I woke up around 9 in the morning and realized my parents were gone. I checked around the house but couldn’t find them. As soon as I grabbed my phone to call them, they entered the house. I asked them where they had been and before I could even understand their expressions, my dad held my arms and said “Listen, some kind of virus has broken out and it is infecting people right now! The chance of death is a 100% and your sister is alone in her hostel right now. You need to get her back!”

He let go of my arms and turned to my mother. I saw a newspaper lying on the table next to me, it read” Lock down has been announced by the government due to virus breakout”

Still shaking from what my dad had just said to me, I picked up the newspaper and read the article, that seemed to be the only one on the newspaper that day, further” This virus was first seen in sharks in the Indian Ocean and now it is infecting humans as well. The chance of fatality has been proven to be a 100%. The virus has spread to Delhi NCR. All of India is on lockdown. The source of the virus is known as sharks under majority of people but some scientists believe that it is something else. The virus can infect a human body completely in 15 seconds. The cure of the virus has not been found but to defend yourselves you can throw any type of alcohol or more specifically, ethanol at the infected, the higher the concentration of the substance, the better. 500 scientists are working 24/7 to find the cure. The Government requests you to stay home and hold your loved ones close to you”

I was trying to process all of this when my phone, kept at my side, rang, I picked it up and it was Vihaan “I am in front of your house, come outside right now!” I went outside, Vihaan was standing there, I asked if he was okay and he replied that he was, he said “Everybody is infected, only few people of my knowing have even survived” a tear ran down his eye “We have to save the ones that are still alive” I was in shock, everybody I knew was either dead or had become death hungry monster. That is when I remembered ‘Meera’, My sister lived in a hostel 15 minutes from my house. I picked up my car keys and told Vihaan to sit in the car. I drove as fast as I can, trying to avoid all the panic. I parked in the parking lot and realized we had nothing to fight the infected with. I told Vihaan to check the car for something we could use as a weapon, I spotted three infected and heard even more. I spotted a knife that was on the ground to protect myself, Vihaan found a wrench in the car. We both nodded and went inside the building, avoiding danger. There were screaming, running and heavily wounded girls everywhere. I tried to ignore that and focus on what was important, ‘Meera’s Safety”. We passed all the commotion and reached a part of the hostel where everybody had locked their doors to protect themselves, my sister’s room number was 645, and she was in that area.

I heard one of the infected, I got ready with my knife even though I had no idea what one of them couldn’t or more importantly could do. I heard it walking, Vihaan and my back touched. I realized he was also hearing this. Suddenly the noises stopped and I saw it, looking straight at my eyes with the most terrifying stare.

This was the first time I saw one of them, even though this was rare for the next couple months, it was something I would never want to do ever again. Their rotting skin and their whole bits of skin taken out from their body by God knows what. My palms were getting sweaty, I didn’t know what I was going to do, then it charged at me, Vihaan heard this and got ready with his wrench. I swiped my knife and tried to kill him but my due to my sweaty hands the knife fell. I tried take it down with force but it was too strong. Vihaan came in and stabbed him with the knife I had dropped but it made it angrier. The Infected tried to bite Vihaan, but before that could happen, I hit Infected with a lamp that was kept in the hallway. That only pushed it to the side and made it even more angry. I took the wrench from Vihaan and hit it in the head but that also made it angrier, but the wrench did the job of pushing it to the side. The Infected got up before I could act and it charged at me, I jumped to the side and let it ram into the wall, this time the Infected attacked with its whole force, and there was nothing I could do, there wasn’t a side I could jump to, there was a door there, a door with the number 645 on it. Before the Infected could bite me, Meera came out of her room with a bottle of hand sanitizer and squeezed it, as hard as she could, in the direction of the infected, the liquid hit the infected and its skin burned, this gave me enough time to see the wrench that wasn’t kept too far away from me. I saw the Infected whining in pain, it didn’t take me any time to understand that this wasn’t enough to kill the Infected. I leapt for the wrench as the Infected got up, it didn’t go for me, this time it attacked Meera. She quickly shut the door, the Infected didn’t stop though, it hit the door with its head and its head went through the door, which put it in perfect position to kill it. I got up with the wrench and hit the Infected through the door with it. It flew through the door, Meera standing against the wall, I went after the Infected and started hitting it with the wrench continuously, this made a bloody mess in the room, but when I stopped when I was sure that the Infected could not get up again, ever.

Meera looked at me and whispered in a panicked voice “Thank you”

I walked out of the room to see that Vihaan had hit his knee on one of the tables lying around the area. I helped him get up, I asked Meera to guide us and she guided us right to the parking lot, I quickly found my where my car was parked.

We took her home. My mother took hugged Meera and took her inside and my dad told me that we did not have anything to defend ourselves with except some bottles of hand sanitizer. I asked Vihaan if he felt fine, he said he felt a lot better and that he would come with me. We got in the car again with a bottle of the sanitizers which was at home and a hammer to defend ourselves. We drove through the road trying to find the best places to get what we needed which was, a lot of alcoholic substances and some foods to eat.

We found a supermarket which would likely have what we needed, so I found a good place to park and we headed into the store with our weapons.

Inside the store was total panic, people were screaming, swearing, fighting, crying and we had to find our way through that. I told Vihaan where to meet me in about 10 minutes, we set our watches to that time and started scavenging for everything we needed. I quickly found some food and kept looking for alcohol and found the jackpot, a whole cart filled with alcoholic drinks and a couple bottles of hand sanitizer. With no one in sight, I ran towards my car, I saw Vihaan coming out of the building. We had almost reached the car but a man with a long beard pointed a gun towards us and told us to give him all the alcohol that we had, then he asked to move away and bent down to pick up a bottle, while pointing the gun at us. He looked away just for a second and Vihaan pushed the gun away and I punched the man in the face. I picked the gun and we again ran towards the car.

Another man stood there, trying to break in my car. I pointed the gun towards the man and he ran away. We loaded the car with what we had and drove home.

After unloading our supplies at home, I took shower and also rubbed some alcohol on my body to clean up any of the bits of Infected I had gotten on me. When I came out, I switched on the news. The situation was getting worse; People were being infected all over the world. Now, it was officially an invasion.

I started thinking what we can do to protect ourselves. I started digging a puddle in the front of our house, filled it with water and put some alcohol in it. Although the rest of our house was surrounded by walls, I dug in front of the walls whenever I thought it was safe and filled it with water and some more of alcohol we had. Now, any infected person can’t enter our house.

I setup a few rules around the house. Like no wastage of food or water, nobody will go out on the road alone, if the puddle is drying then fill it up with water and some alcohol. I will refill the puddle outside every 3 days, Vihaan and I will go out every week to buy supplies, every night 2 people will stay up with the gun we have and watch out for the infected or any kind of danger. If there is some kind of danger, the person with gun will keep the gun pointed at whatever the danger is and the other one will go and call the rest of the people.

6 months later

We have been using these rules for the past 6 months. The situation is getting better but we need to get to a safer place. Some homeless people have started coming to us for help, we can’t keep them so we tell them to find another home but we know they won’t. I have been trying to communicate with someone that could help us, agencies who are rescuing people that are stuck like us and even the government but each time I do that they say they will come but they don’t.

Just another day was going on nothing to do except watching the news and keeping an eye out for Infected. I saw on the news that a big hoard of infected people was heading towards us. We had to move. I gathered everybody, my parents, Vihaan and Meera and told them what we have to do. While I was discussing the plan with them, I got a call on my phone from someone who could rescue us. I explained everything to them and they shared a location with me, they told me that there would be a helicopter waiting for us there.

It was not too far away and we had a car, I thought that it was not too far and decided to start heading towards the location as soon as possible. Everybody gathered their belongings and we started to head towards the location in the car. Vihaan was driving and we were halfway, I finally was beginning to gain more hope but that did not last for long because the car broke down, probably because of the lack of maintenance. Everybody started arguing about what we should do; Vihaan was arguing to keep heading towards the location and others were arguing we should find a place to spend the night. I asked everybody to calm down and said “I saw a empty diner a few miles ago, we should go there and spend the night, we will decide what to do in the morning.” Everybody agreed.

We were trying to go as fast as we can and it was dark after 30 minutes. We were only 15 minutes away from the diner. I spotted it and we all entered. Inside it was dark, dirty and smelt like somebody had died in there, I knew what that meant and told everybody to get out, I saw an Infected appear, I had the gun in my hand and I knew what I was going to do. I pointed the gun at the Infected and pressed the trigger. After a loud bang and a lot of blood spattering, I turned back towards my family, who all had been watching. I got out of the diner and started thinking of what we could do, I turned towards the direction of the location, I gazed into the sun setting, unsure of what I could do.

Suddenly, I heard a giant roar and I knew that it was another Infected, I quickly turned around and shot it. I thought that no one was harmed until I saw that my mother was bitten by the zombie. She was whaling in pain, my sister realized what had happened and knelt down to my mother, crying. Vihaan was in shock and could not move, I looked at my mother, she was crying so hard, many memories started flashing back, but all I could feel was sadness and pain, I knew that this was going to turn her into one of those monsters and there was only way we could stop that.

My sister was crying now, she kept screaming at me to do something. I turned to her and managed to utter a few words out “We can’t do anything”

She understood what I meant and her face turned from crying to disbelief. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, there must be something you could do, put alcohol on the wound, that would stop it from spreading right.” She said, “No, that would just bring her more pain” I said, quietly. I kept looking at my mother, she knew there was only way, so did my everyone. “I don’t want to turn into one of those” My mother said, holding back tears. I exhaled shakily, brought the gun up and aimed it at her, my sister started screaming “No! No! NO! do not do this, please don’t do this, no” she sobbed uncontrollably.

My mother closed her eyes “It’s okay, Beta, I’ll never stop loving you” Tears were rolling down my dad’s cheeks as well. I gathered up all the courage I had left and I put pressure on the trigger, I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger all the way back.

I heard a thud, no, not one thud but two. My dad jumped in front of the gun before I pulled trigger, the bullet went through his head before it went through my mother’s. In a second, I lost two of the most important people in my life. My sister was quiet, she could not fathom what just happened, she was gasping for air, so was I, that is when I let go of my body, I dropped the gun and fell to the ground. My chest felt like it had collapsed.

I took a deep breath and got up again, I said to Vihaan to pick up my father’s belongings as I picked up my mother’s. “The last thing they would have wanted was for us to die as well” I said. I pulled my sister up and asked “Would you say that’s wrong?” She nodded her head sideways. I nodded and we all started walking. I realized that there was no way we could walk till the location on foot and told Vihaan to find some form of transport. I took Meera and sat on the edge of the footpath as Vihaan ran away to find some transport. There were no Infected there now, at least that’s what I thought. Even if there were I couldn’t care less. My mother and My father were just shot and I was the one that pulled the trigger.

Vihaan came back after 30 minutes and he had found something, a bike. I took another deep breath and said “That’ll do”. I got up with Meera, her cheeks were wet because of her tears, she took another deep breath, looked at me and nodded. I decided to ride the bike with Meera behind me and Vihaan behind her. We rode the bike through the night and reached the location before the time they had given me, I heard a helicopter coming near us, I knew that was them.

At that moment, I didn’t feel hopeless I felt lifeless, this invasion had taken everything from me and this was all I could take, I could not see anybody else die, I could not let anybody else suffer. This was all I could do and now I just wanted to live, I knew it was hard to be happy ever after, so I didn’t hope for that. Even with all these thoughts I could only think of one thing, my parent’s faces in their last moments.

While I was in deep in thought and waiting for the helicopter to come, it was right on top of us and was lowering down with a few people peeking out, at that moment I heard something and I knew what it was, it was those monsters, too many of them, I raised my gun to shoot them but realized I had no bullets left. I thought it didn’t matter because the helicopter would reach us before those monsters would. I looked up and I felt something grabbing my leg, I realized that there had been a stench here for a while, it was like something had died there.

By Jashith Singh